Ariana: Strength, Grace, and Creative Trust

I’ve been photographing Ariana for about six years now, and in that time, I’ve watched her grow into an extraordinary professional dancer with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. She is the definition of strength and elegance on stage — a powerhouse with the soul of an artist — and I feel so lucky every time I get to photograph her.

When we first started working together, we were both still figuring things out — experimenting, trusting, learning. Over time, something special developed. Now it feels like we can almost finish each other’s creative sentences. That kind of collaboration is rare, and I don’t take it for granted!

Whenever a new idea starts to form in my mind, Ariana is often the first person I imagine bringing it to life. She has floated in water for me, hung gracefully from a rope, and in this image, danced through layers of billowing canopy fabric I had lucked upon — material I wasn’t quite sure what to do with, but knew had potential.

That’s the beautiful thing about creative trust: you don’t have to know the end result to dive in. You just need the right people around you.

The extra magic here came from Emry Amoky (also from PBT), who helped us throw and shape the fabric mid-shot. Working with dancers who see light, line, and movement so intuitively is endlessly inspiring. There’s a certain energy that rises when everyone in the room is fully tuned in, creating with their whole heart — it’s a kind of shared rhythm, an unspoken language.

I’m so grateful for collaborators like Ariana — for the mutual curiosity, the play, the beauty, and the trust. I wonder what we’ll dream up next?

You can see lots of photos I’ve done for PBT at www.pbt.org/artists